Meld (episode)
:You may also be looking for the plot element of this episode, the Vulcan mind meld. Tuvok is plagued by the senselessness of a murder aboard Voyager. Summary Teaser In Chez Sandríne, Tom Paris offers to make a pool game with Harry Kim "interesting", but Ricky warns Kim that Paris is hustling him. Instead, Paris starts a lottery-style game with the patrons of Chez Sandríne, wherein the players bet replicator rations and the player who correctly guesses the radiogenic particle count at 1200 hours wins the entire pot – "minus a small handling fee for the bank, of course." In main engineering, Ensign Hogan has traced a problem with the warp drive to a malfunction in one of the EPS conduits. According to Crewman Suder, there had been nothing wrong with the conduit the day before. B'Elanna Torres goes to investigate. In the mess hall, Neelix tries to impress Tuvok with his knowledge of Vulcan holidays, much to Tuvok's dismay. Neelix declares that he will not rest until he sees Tuvok smile. Tuvok answers, "Then you will not rest." Just as Neelix suggests bringing back the ancient pagan festival of Rumarie, Torres calls Tuvok to engineering. In engineering, Torres has found the body of Crewman Darwin in the damaged EPS conduit. Act One In sickbay, The Doctor tells Tuvok that if the EPS conduit hadn't failed, Darwin's body would have been vaporized. Instead, Darwin received third degree plasma burns to 98 percent of his body. Tuvok supposes that Darwin had entered the conduit to repair it, but The Doctor shows Tuvok a contusion on the base of Darwin's skull. Tuvok then supposes that Darwin fell and hit his head while working on the conduit, but The Doctor says that the coup-contrecoup pattern of breakage on the wound indicates a moving object striking a stationary head, not the reverse. He rules Darwin's death a homicide. In Janeway's ready room, Tuvok discusses Darwin's murder with Janeway and Chakotay. Tuvok notes that Darwin had no enemies and that there is no obvious motive for the crime. As Janeway is reviewing Darwin's Starfleet record, Torres arrives with last night's duty logs and reports that Suder was the only person in engineering when Darwin came on duty. Torres and Chakotay tell Janeway and Tuvok that Suder seemed a little too eager to kill when he was in the Maquis. Tuvok feels that this information should have been included in Suder's crew evaluation, but Chakotay says that he isn't in the habit of putting hunches in his reports, and he that didn't want to make life on more difficult for his Maquis crew. Tuvok calls Suder to his office for questioning. Suder claims that he was running a fuel consumption analysis for Torres at the time of the murder, and insists that he did not murder Crewman Darwin. Tuvok dismisses Suder, and The Doctor calls him to sickbay again. The Doctor shows Tuvok DNA retrieved from Darwin's head wound that didn't belong to him, and therefore must belong to the murderer. He hands Tuvok a PADD with the murderer's identity. Tuvok shows Suder the DNA evidence and reminds him that under Starfleet Directive 101, he does not have to answer any questions, but Suder doesn't see any point in continuing to lie, so he confesses to the crime and tells Tuvok where he hid the murder weapon, a two-kilogram coil spanner. He had intended for the EPS conduit to vaporize Darwin's body, but figures that he must have damaged it when he put the body in. Tuvok asks for the motive, and Suder responds, "No reason." Tuvok refuses to accept that answer, so Suder offers, "I didn't like the way he looked at me." Act Two In sickbay, The Doctor confirms that the coil spanner is the murder weapon, but Tuvok cannot close the case until he understands the motivation for the crime. Tuvok asks if Suder could be psychotic. Kes reports that all of Suder's genetic markers are normal and that he has no tendency toward bipolar disorder, but that he has elevated norepinephrine levels, indicating aggressive or violent tendencies. The Doctor notes that these results are not significantly different from those of the other Maquis crewmen and suggests that Suder may simply not be able to control his violent instincts. Tuvok still isn't satisfied. Tuvok visits Suder in the brig and questions him again about his motive, and Suder gives him the same answer as before. Suder asks Tuvok what his punishment will be, and says that he knows what he would do in Janeway's position – "I guess I'm lucky. The Federation doesn't execute people." Tuvok leaves the brig, but returns shortly afterward and suggests a mind meld with Suder, believing it will give him the answer he seeks and will also give Suder some of his Vulcan control. Suder agrees, and Tuvok performs the meld. Act Three In Sandríne's, nobody has won Paris's "radiogenic sweepstakes". Kim is unamused, and notes that Paris is the only person who wins every day. As Kim and Paris leave the holodeck, Paris considers out loud what he will replicate for lunch. Tuvok tells Janeway about his mind meld with Suder, and reports that Suder was being truthful – he has an incredibly violent nature, with no outlet to express it, and he simply lost control. Janeway and Tuvok discuss Suder's punishment. They agree that keeping him in the brig is not appropriate, nor is leaving him with someone in the Delta Quadrant. Tuvok suggests execution. Janeway will not consider that idea and orders Tuvok to install maximum security containment around Suder's quarters. Tuvok objects to allowing Suder the comfort of his own quarters, but Janeway says that it's the best they can do. Janeway asks if Tuvok is experiencing adverse effects from the meld, and Tuvok admits to being "disconcerted". Janeway tells him to take some time off, but Tuvok believes that he doesn't need it. In the mess hall, Neelix tries to get Tuvok to smile. Tuvok asks Neelix to leave him alone, but he persists. Finally, Tuvok snaps and strangles Neelix. Then, he ends his holodeck program. Act Four In Sandríne's, Paris asks the computer to announce the winner of today's sweepstakes, but it doesn't respond. Chakotay calls off the game, confiscates the pot, and puts Paris on report. Paris talks back to him, earning him a "thanks a lot" from Kim. Tuvok visits Suder in the brig. Suder marvels at his new-found emotional control. Tuvok suggests various medical treatments to Suder, but Suder believes that he can learn to control himself with Tuvok's help. Suder guesses that having experienced his violent impulses must be difficult for Tuvok, and tells him how he sees violence as "attractive". He requests another mind meld, but Tuvok refuses. Suder muses that mind melding might be considered a form of violence, and that it might be fatal if the melder lost control. Tuvok locks himself in his quarters, deletes his security clearance, and tells the computer to inform Janeway that he is no longer fit for duty. Act Five Janeway lifts the security seal on Tuvok's quarters, and enters to find his furniture destroyed. Tuvok, lurking in the shadows, tells Janeway not to come any closer. Janeway convinces Tuvok to let her transport him to sickbay, but Tuvok requests sedation first, for the safety of the crew. The Doctor diagnoses Tuvok with a neurochemical imbalance in his mesiofrontal cortex, the psychosuppression center of his brain. The Doctor temporarily disables Tuvok's emotional control hoping to shock his emotional suppression systems into functioning again. Tuvok feels euphoric and wants to stay this way for a while, to "study primal Vulcan behavior", but The Doctor cannot allow that. Tuvok threatens The Doctor and tells Janeway that her refusal to execute Suder is a sign of weakness and that she disgusts him. He offers to execute Suder himself and tries to get Kes to release the force field around the surgical bay. The treatment ends and Tuvok loses consciousness. Janeway asks how many treatments will be necessary but The Doctor says that there is no way to know. Later, Tuvok regains consciousness and breaks out of sickbay, and returns to the brig to execute Suder. Suder asks Tuvok whether he is trying to serve justice or vengeance, and warns him that if he does not control the violence, it will control him, and there will no longer be any place for him in civilized life. Tuvok initiates a mind meld with Suder, but is unable to complete the execution. :"Captain's log, supplemental. Ensign Suder has been incarcerated in secured quarters, where he will likely spend the rest of our journey home. Lieutenant Tuvok remains under observation in sickbay." In sickbay, The Doctor tells Tuvok that his inability to kill Suder shows that his suppression systems are starting to work again, and he will make a full recovery. Tuvok apologizes to Janeway for insulting her, and tells her that he has the highest respect for her and considers her a friend. Janeway accepts his apology but orders him not to conduct any more mind melds without her permission. Memorable Quotes "All of us have violent instincts; we have evolved from predators... well, not me, of course. I've just been programmed by you predators." : - The Doctor "I will not rest until I see you smile." "Then you will not rest." : - Neelix and Tuvok "Do you know what a mind meld is?" "It's that Vulcan thing where you grab someone's head." : - Tuvok and Suder "You are not invulnerable, hologram. A few well chosen commands to the computer, and you will cease to exist." : - Tuvok, to The Doctor "A perfectly good theory. Unfortunately, it is wrong." : - The Doctor, to Tuvok "I remind you, I am trained in the martial arts of many alpha quadrant cultures. Sitting here attempting to meditate I have counted the number of ways I know of killing someone. Using just a finger, a hand, a foot. Before you entered, I had reached 94." : - Tuvok, to Captain Janeway Background Information Story and Script * Believing that Tuvok encountering random violence would make for a good story, executive producer Michael Piller sought freelance writers to pitch such a plot. "I had been after freelancers for a year or so to give me a story about Tuvok and random violence," Piller recalled, "because I felt that the ultimate nightmare for Tuvok, for a Vulcan, would be to bring some logic to the kind of random violence that you see on '' . As a fairly intelligent human being, I'' don't understand how it occurs and I can't explain it. Imagine what it must be for a Vulcan, who ''must explain it in order for it to exist within his own personal set of values. I knew there was a story there." (Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages) * This is the first ''Star Trek episode whose development involved Michael Sussman, who later went on to write or co-write ten subsequent episodes of Star Trek: Voyager and twenty-two of Enterprise. This is also the only episode of Voyager s second season that Sussman worked on. (Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages) * Before pitching a very similar story idea to how the episode ultimately turned out, Mike Sussman learned of Michael Piller's search for a writer to pitch the idea of Tuvok being confronted by random violence. Piller remembered, "One of the interns, Michael Sussman, somebody who I think has a great deal of promise, listened to me tell that to a freelancer one day, and the freelancer didn't get it, but Michael came in and pitched me a story. Even though it wasn't exactly what we wound up doing, it was close enough that we said, 'Let's pursue it. " (Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages) * Despite Mike Sussman having pitched the plot, Michael Piller subsequently chose to personally take up the challenge of crafting the idea into a script. "We felt that Mike didn't have the experience yet to write the script," Piller explained, "and we were under a great time crunch. You have to understand that during this section of the season we were writing shows as quickly as we could to get them up on their feet, because we weren't sure what the next show was going to be." (Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages) * Michael Piller conducted research for the script during the writing process. "I hired a consultant, a psychiatrist with great credentials, and I showed him the story, the beat sheet the plot and the script," Piller remembered. "We talked about language and exactly what we were dealing with in this story, and I began to understand the pull of violence, the seductiveness of violence." (Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages) * A scene involving Chakotay "dressing down" Tuvok for not knowing about Paris' gambling operation was cut from the episode. (Star Trek: Voyager Companion) * Michael Piller initially struggled with deciding precisely how to end the episode, but the other co-creators of Star Trek: Voyager helped with the writing of the story's final act. "I had a very difficult time with act five, where Tuvok goes berserk and tries to get out of the force-field," Piller commented. "It was because by the time I got there, I couldn't remember what the hell I was writing about. It just seemed dark and and grim and mean, and I couldn't figure out for what purpose. What's the point of all this? It was Rick [Berman] and Jeri [Taylor] who really steered me back by taking something that was already mentioned earlier in the script and saying, 'That's interesting, you should explore that more,' which was the capital punishment issue. By making capital punishment what is driving Tuvok to commit violence in the fifth act, it becomes a much more universal show, because everybody then has to say, 'Well, is it my violent instinct that is driving my need for capital punishment to punish the violent?' I think that really made the show work." (Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages) * Ultimately, Michael Piller believed the episode had an obvious storyline but also a lot to say about violence. He remarked, "The interesting thing about the show was that the plot is entirely predictable. What makes it rise above is the ability to make that story talk about something, to talk about violence and to see the different facets of it." (Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages) * Michael Piller also believed that the mysteriousness of the Maquis was central to the episode's plot. "The whole story" Piller stated, "is based on the fact that nobody really knows about the backgrounds of these Maquis. Nobody knows where they came from, nobody asks for resumes. The murderer is a man who joined the Maquis because he really, really likes to kill. Finally he kills somebody aboard ''Voyager. If we had no Maquis on the ship you would never find a human Starfleet officer - one who's gone through the complete Starfleet training - who would do that. It just doesn't happen." (A Vision of the Future - Star Trek: Voyager) * In summation of the scripting process, Michael Piller noted, "''It turned out to be a very interesting, disturbing experience." He also noted, " Meld' was an important show for me." (Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages) * Supervising producer Brannon Braga extremely enjoyed this episode, subsequently rating it as his favorite from the second season of Voyager. He enthused, "Superb. It doesn't get any better than this: melding with a psychopath, and the psychopath starts to take on the Vulcan tendencies and vice versa. An exploration of murderous tendencies and evil. Just absolutely fascinating." (Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages) * Brannon Braga felt that the issues explored in this episode were very contemporary. He opined, "The random violence, the causes of random violence in 'Meld', these are very Nineties issues. These aren't things that you would have seen in the [[Star Trek: The Original Series|original ''Star Trek]], because they weren't issues then." (Star Trek Monthly issue 20) Cast and Characters * The producers decided to cast Brad Dourif in the role of Suder and the actor had a conversation with Neelix actor Ethan Phillips in which the offer was discussed. "''My girl friend had known Ethan Phillips for years," Dourif explained. "We all had dinner one night and the idea of my doing ''Voyager came up. I said, 'I would love to do it. It sounds like fun.' And we did it." (The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine, issue #9) * Director Cliff Bole liked Brad Dourif as an actor but felt he was underused here. "''As far as Brad goes," Bole stated, "he's a great guy and brings a lot to work. I wish we had given him more to do. I don't think we showed enough duality in Suder as the maniac taking on the Vulcan's calm control. We should have played off that a little more, but there are only 44 minutes." (The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine, issue #15) * Michael Piller, Brannon Braga, Brad Dourif and Cliff Bole all thought highly of Tim Russ' performance as Tuvok in this episode. Regarding the story, Piller remarked, "The thing that ''really made it work was Tim Russ's performance, which was just remarkable." Similarly, Braga commented, "''I think Tim Russ made himself known as one of the best actors on the show. Tuvok really broke out in that episode." (Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages) For his part, Brad Dourif enthused, "I thought the work Tim did was beautiful, especially in the scene that he did with Captain Janeway where his ability to constrain his emotions was removed from him and he became violent." (The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine, issue #9) In summation, Cliff Bole raved, "Tim kicked ass in that show." (The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine, issue #15) * Tim Russ himself cited the episode as one of the most powerful episodes in the entirety of Star Trek: Voyager, saying, " Meld' was a very violent show." (Voyager Time Capsule: Tuvok, VOY Season 2 DVD special features) He also listed this episode, midway through the fourth season, as one of five episodes that he characterized as "the defining moments for Tuvok". (The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine, issue #17) However, Russ also felt that his character's exploration of violence was unresolved. When asked if there were any issues that he would have liked the writers to explore regarding Tuvok, the actor stated, "I would have liked to have played him in a situation in which he would have had to resort to taking a human approach to solve a particular problem once every other method of logic had been exhausted. His early exploration of violence in 'Meld' I felt was unfinished. He never found an answer to the question, 'Why? " (Star Trek Magazine issue 94, p. 32) * Brad Dourif was impressed not only by Russ' performance here but also by Kate Mulgrew's. Dourif stated, "Kate Mulgrew had ... what I thought was just an exquisite moment. She did a transition that I thought was enormously complex and extremely fascinating. I was absolutely swept away by it. She was also fun to work with, and we had a really good time." (The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine, issue #9) * This episode was among Ethan Phillips' favorites (in common with and ) from the first two seasons to watch. (Star Trek Monthly issue 21) Production * Cliff Bole directed this episode several weeks after having directed his first Voyager installment, . Recalling how he captured Tim Russ' performance here, Bole stated, "We worked hard on it together, and then a couple times I just said, 'Go for it.' Those turned out to be the takes we kept." Summing up their results, Bole noted, " Meld' is one of the best shows I've done for ''Voyager." (The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine, issue #15) Continuity * This episode has some similarities to the fourth season installment "Random Thoughts". Tim Russ stated that both episodes "explored suppressed and deep, violent thoughts and the problems those things created for Tuvok." (The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine, issue #17) * In this episode, Tom Paris mentions raktajino, Klingon coffee, which is seen many times in ''Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. * After first appearing in this episode, the character of Lon Suder reappears in the second season finale and the third season premiere , thereafter being referenced in the fifth season episode . Of an initial unawareness regarding the role of Suder, Brad Dourif related, "I had no idea Suder would be a recurring character." (The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine, issue #9) Video and DVD releases *UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, CIC Video): Volume 2.6, *As part of the VOY Season 2 DVD collection Links and references Starring *Kate Mulgrew as Captain Kathryn Janeway Also starring *Robert Beltran as Commander Chakotay *Roxann Biggs-Dawson as Lieutenant B'Elanna Torres *Jennifer Lien as Kes *Robert Duncan McNeill as Lieutenant Tom Paris *Ethan Phillips as Neelix *Robert Picardo as The Doctor *Tim Russ as Lieutenant Tuvok *Garrett Wang as Ensign Harry Kim Special guest star *Brad Dourif as Lon Suder Guest stars *Angela Dohrmann as Ricky *Simon Billig as Hogan Co-star *Majel Barrett as the computer voice Uncredited co-stars *Carl David Burks as ** Frank Darwin ** Russell *Damaris Cordelia as security officer *Tarik Ergin as Ayala *Heather Ferguson as a command division officer *Kerry Hoyt as Fitzpatrick *Louis Ortiz as Culhane *Shepard Ross as Murphy *Simon Stotler as an operations division ensign *John Tampoya as Kashimuro Nozawa *Unknown actor as elderly science officer References Betazoid; bipolar disorder; Cardassian Pinochle; CCF; coup-contrecoup pattern; Darwin, Frank; DNA; EPS conduit; epinephrine; fuel consumption analysis; Jones; Kal Rekk; Lewis; limbic system; logic; Maquis; martial arts; mashed potatoes; meditation; mesiofrontal cortex; microscope; nanite; neurogenetic marker; neuropeptide; neurosynaptic therapy; norepinephrine; Pagan; Paris Radiogenic Sweepstakes; prime rib; radiogenic particle; raktajino; replicator rations; resumé; Rillan grease; Rogers; Rumarie; Sandríne's; security clearance; security seal; spinach; Starfleet General Orders and Regulations; suicide; Vulcan; Vulcan mind meld; whipped cream; Yorkshire pudding |next= }} Category:VOY episodes de:Gewalt (Episode) es:Meld fr:Meld nl:Meld